CORTLAND, N.Y. – A group of about 50 SUNY Cortland students marched on the streets of Cortland Monday night in what was largely a show of protest against police killings of unarmed minorities.
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Students began marching down Neubig Road on the SUNY Cortland campus at around 5:30 p.m. Monday. Students walked down Main Street and Tompkins Street before arriving back on campus at around 6:30 p.m.
Some motorists who drove by the march honked their horns in a show of support for the students. One faculty member cheered for the students as she was leaving work Monday night.
Micheal Guity, left, president of the Black Student Union at SUNY Cortland, addressing students outside Corey Union Monday night (Peter Blanchard/Cortland Voice)
Michael Guity, a junior at SUNY Cortland and president of the college's Black Student Union, said the group organizes the march every year.
While students could be heard chanting "black lives matter" and "no justice, no peace," Guity said students often march for a variety of different causes, not just civilian deaths at the hands of law enforcement.
"Everybody marches for a different cause ... it's not just racial," he said. "People are marching for breast cancer, gay rights, women's rights. Everybody has an injustice that affects them."
After that march concluded, Guity thanked students for participating in the event.
"It takes great courage to actually walk and stay with us, but you guys did it," Guity told the students outside Corey Union.
The fact that the march fell on Columbus Day – a holiday that some cities and states have done away with due to the atrocities against indigenous peoples committed by its namesake – appeared to be a coincidence.
Guity said the march was originally scheduled for Friday but was postponed at the last minute.
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